Thursday, January 19, 2017

I know I had promised an Indochina post, but these two practically leaped onto the table demanding brush and paint, so here they are.

This
past summer saw the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Spanish
Civil War, and this autumn marked when Republican Madrid held fast
against Franco's Nationalist forces.

A
significant amount of credit for the city's resistance was due to the
arrival of reinforcements from Barcelona, led by the charismatic anarchist Jose Durruti. His force, known as the 'Durutti Column'
became famous for its assistance in fending off Franco's hardened
Moroccan professionals. The anarchists took particularly heavy
casualties, including Durruti himself, fighting in the Casa de Campo (Madrid's largest park).

Durruti, in car crudely marked with 'C.N.T.', with his column heading west in the autumn of 1936.

Durruti's ad hoc column of Republican fighters on the move.

Durruti's
death is still shrouded in controversy. Some say he was killed by enemy
fire, while others contend he was a victim of friendly fire. A few go
so far as to say he was killed by Soviet-led Communists who saw him as a
threat to their leadership within the Republican cause.

So, seen here is a miliciana standard bearer, wearing the distinctive blue workers overalls (el mono azul),
giving the Republican clenched-fist salute and holding aloft an
anarchist flag. The flag is emblazoned with 'Columna Durruti' and the
acronyms of the two largest anarchist workers militias, the C.N.T and
the F.A.I.The figure is from the Empress Miniatures' range and the banner is from Flags of War.

Behind
her is a AAC-1937 Chevrolet armoured car. This vehicle is often
mistaken for a Soviet BA-3/6, but in fact was built in Valencia, using a
Chevy 6x4 chassis as a basis. This one is armed with a hull machine gun
along with a 37mm gun with a coaxial MG. It saw service in the later
part of the civil war.

Many
of these vehicles were captured by the Nationalists, or confiscated by
the French during
the Republicans' final retreat into exile. Oddly enough, many would see
the end of their active service as German armoured cars on the Eastern
Front.

This
vehicle is, again, from Empress Miniatures. A nice, simple and clean
kit. I've given it a fairly basic paint job in dark olive green, which
seemed to be a relatively common colour for vehicles at the time. It
has 'U.H.P.' on the upper hull, denoting it's crew as supporters of the Uníos Hermanos Proletarios
(United Brothers of the Proletariat) a socialist workers organization,
part of the alphabet soup of socialist-anarcho-sydicalist trade unions
that were (and still are) popular in and around Barcelona.